Written by Zsof on Berlin, 27.07.2023
- A scholarship program to support artists, thinkers and doers in Berlin -
Does money create space? What does a nurturing space feel like? What do we need to learn to co-create the future we want to live in?
We are an art fund, so yes, it is about money. But what else can it be, more than just a scholarship program that supports you financially to create your piece of art in the course of 4 months? What can we learn during these 4 months together that will help us create a safety net of friendship and trust that might last longer than the money?
Locality and diversity. The scene of our scholarship program and general activity is Berlin, Germany. In this extremely diverse city, our dinner tables, artist collectives or reading groups are often populated by people embedded in a multiplicity of radically different contexts. Yet, these coexisting realities often stay hidden as the code of interaction often conforms to the behavioral norms of the main linguistic or social classes present. Others, outside of these realms, often exist on the periphery, staying unknown, misunderstood or uncomfortable. With our work, we wish to acknowledge the diversity of our city, and to create a space with explicit curiosity towards less understood ways of interacting, speaking and backgrounds. Encouraging people who are comfortable speaking to listen, and the ones whose reality is often unseen to show themselves. We coexist, we create new habits.
Nurturing community. In a nurturing community, space is created for members to articulate their needs instead of assuming them. Moving towards a needs-based support structure is based on the idea that everyone knows or has the ability to find out what they truly need if given the chance/space/environment. The interaction is not predicated on the organization’s needs, but places the person in the center. We acknowledge, that needs are intimately related to one’s upbringing, where do they go home to, who do they care for and how much money they have at their disposal. We wish to move away from a general call for applications with a standard offering of a “package”. Instead, we wish to offer direct communication about the needs of each participant, to understand the specific way they wish to receive support.
Structures for solidarity. Allowing solidarity to surface from semi-structured interactions. Moving from competition-based coexistence in a community (such as a constant “fight” for space where the louder and faster person “wins” and speaks, resulting in extreme uneven distribution of time and attention to different participants). We wish to subvert these habits widely present in societies we live in and to learn by playing with doing things differently. Structuring interactions in a way that encourages slowing down, listening and curiosity directly aids the legitimacy for multiple ways of being.
Trust and co-creation. What do we need to know about the other to trust them? And to ask them to do us a favor? If we want to be a part of a community, why does it feel so intimidating and hard sometimes? Learning to find safety in friendship and trust are values we wish to embody through the processes we create. Co-creation of a process also means to leave space for the unknown, and for participation. To allow the seeds that grow from specific interactions to influence the course of future action instead of following an authoritarian predetermined path.
Post-work. Moving away from competition- and production-oriented ways of being also means to move into the unknown. We all live under late-capitalism in various forms, mostly rushed. To figure out how to create the connections and solidarity we need for a future we want to live in involves experimentation. We are not expecting to get it right at the first try, but to have experiences of coming together that can lead us further in the experimentation process. Imagining a future that works better doesn’t have to involve colonizing the moon, on the contrary, it might grow out of us showing up in a space to interact, infused with some trust, openness to reflection, readiness to get creative and to break our habits.